Preclinical teaching of periodontal surgical concepts using common instructional models: A comparative assessment

Some commonly used models utilized for teaching periodontal surgical techniques to dental students include pig mandible and periodontal typodonts. Currently, no study compares the learning and teaching outcomes following the use of one model to the other. This study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the preclinical laboratory component on student understanding of concepts taught in the periodontal surgical course and assessing students' and faculty members' satisfaction with the instructional models.

As part of the surgical periodontics course, 98 students took the final exam, with eighty students participating in only the pig mandible session and twenty-three students participating in both the pig jaw mandible and an additional session utilizing periodontal typodonts under the supervision of ten periodontal faculty members. Examination scores of students attending or not attending the laboratory session were analyzed by a two-sample t-test. A questionnaire evaluating the effectiveness of both models was given to faculty members and students who participated in both laboratory sessions. These results were analyzed by paired t-test.

Participation in the laboratory sessions did not significantly impact the final exam scores (p = 0.722). Students who had better didactic performance in the course performed better in the final exam, irrespective of laboratory participation. Both students and faculty members preferred typodont to the pig mandibles in learning or teaching periodontal surgical concepts, but both felt gaining flap management and flap refection experience to be better with the pig mandible model without statistical significance (p = 0.119 and p = 0.070, respectively).

Within the limitations of this study, we can conclude that laboratory sessions did not significantly improve student performance on the exam. Students and faculty members generally gave positive feedback on both instructional models. Periodontal typodont could be an alternative model for teaching dental students, periodontal surgical concepts.